Remain humble while Practicing Righteousness

Jesus in Matthew 6 instructs us to not seek glory from men in doing our acts of righteousness. We are not to be like the religious hypocrites who broadcast their righteous acts so that they are acknowledged by men. Jesus goes on to say that those that seek their reward from men will receive no reward in heaven since they have already received their reward on earth.

1  Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 6: 1)

Jesus goes on and gives us examples of righteous acts and how we are to conduct ourselves in performing them.

1. Giving to the Poor. Jesus tells us to give to the poor in secret. Don’t broadcast your giving to anyone. Jesus went as far as to say not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

2. Praying in Public. Jesus tells us not to be like the hypocrites that like to stand and pray in the public places so that they can be seen by men. He continues to say, when we pray to go to our inner room, close the door and pray to your God who is in secret.

3. Praying with Many Words. Jesus tells us not to pray our prayers using meaningless repetition with many words. God is not impressed by our wordy prayers. When we pray to God it should be as you are talking to someone that you are in a close relationship with. Don’t think you have to pray intellectually to God with complicated speech or wordy and repetitive prayers.

4. Fasting. When we fast, Jesus tells us to not put on a gloomy appearance so that men will notice. When we meet people we should not intentionally give an appearance that would lead them to believe we are fasting.

With each example above, Jesus keeps telling us to do these things in secret. These righteous acts are for God and not for man, so God is the only one that needs to know when we do these things. God knows our heart and he knows if we are seeking our rewards from man. Seeking mans glory is prideful and will keep us from getting our rewards in Heaven. We need to remain humble in everything we do.

About the Author:
Dwayne McLean is the editor, publisher and author of various Christian Articles on the People Get Ready website.